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MorphemeAddict@hidden.email wrote: > > > > Lesson 8 has this sentence: > > > I saw John in the dining room eating. > > > Kiva bavi Lajonbegi zoge fudepi fucale. > > > > > > The implied subject of "fucale" is obviously "Lajonbegi", but is this > > > necessarily the case? Can the sentence be interpreted so that the > > > implied subject is "bavi"? > > > > > > > It sure can, although I doubt if anyone would. You could also interpret > > it so that the implied subject of "zoge" is "bavi". > > > > > > > > How can the argument the adverb/case tag links to be made explicit? > > > > > > > How would you do it in English? > > > > Circumlocution: > In this case there are four possibilities, [I, John] x [in the dining room, > eating] (the cross product of the two sets). > > I saw John while I was in the dining room eating. > I was in the dining room eating when I saw John. > > I was in the dining room and John was eating when I saw him. > I saw John while I was in the dining room and John was eating. > > John was in the dining room and I was eating when I saw him. > I saw John while he was in the dining room and I was eating. > > John was in the dining room eating when I saw him. > I saw John while he was in the dining room eating. > > In other words, by making a separate clause with an explicit subject and no > object, so that the only possible argument is the subject. Forcing the object > interpretation would likely require rephrasing so that the object became a > subject. I could do this in Latejami too, but I thought there might be some > other way. > There IS another way: Kiva bavi Lajonbegi zogyu fudepi tesye fucalo. Note that "tesye" must be used if you want "zogyu" to appear before "fucalo". Otherwise, "fucalo" would modify "fudepi". However, we can eliminate the need for "tesye" by reversing the two modifiers (which is probably more natural since heavy modifiers tend to follow light modifiers in a right-branching language): Kiva bavi Lajonbegi fucalo zogyu fudepi. > > Zoga bavi fudepi fucale dase kiva bavi Lajonbegi. > Kiva bavi Lajonbegi dase zoga bavi fudepi fucale. > > Zoga Lajonbegi fudepi fucale dase kiva bavi jonhi. > Kiva bavi Lajonbegi dase zoga jonhi fudepi fucale. > > Doycipu zoga bavi fudepi zer fucala Lajonbegi dase kiva bavi jonhi. > Kiva bavi Lajonbegi dase doycipu zoga bavi fudepi zer fucala jonhi. > > Doycipu zoga Lajonbegi fudepi zer fucala bavi dase kiva bavi jonhi. > Kiva bavi Lajonbegi dase doycipu zoga jonhi fudepi zer fucala bavi. > Here is what the translation software does with some of the above examples: > Zoga bavi fudepi fucale dase kiva bavi Lajonbegi. I was in the dining room eating when I saw John. > Kiva bavi Lajonbegi dase zoga bavi fudepi fucale. I saw John when I was in the dining room eating. > Zoga Lajonbegi fudepi fucale dase kiva bavi jonhi. John was in the dining room eating when I saw him. > Kiva bavi Lajonbegi dase zoga jonhi fudepi fucale. I saw John when he was in the dining room eating. > Doycipu zoga bavi fudepi zer fucala Lajonbegi dase kiva bavi jonhi. I was in the dining room. John ???ed when I saw him. What does "zerfucala" mean? I won't translate the rest because they all had "zerfucala". > > I added "doycipu" in the latter set because of the verb "fucala". Do I need > it in the first set also? > It depends on how you view the event. If you really want to emphasize that you spent a period of time in the dining room and only saw John at one particular moment during that period, then use the imperfective "doycipu". Regards, Rick Morneau http://www.eskimo.com/~ram